RUSSIAN ATHLETICS FEDERATION REMAINS BANNED
World athletics body IAAF on Tuesday upheld a ban against Russia’s athletics federation over doping in the country, pending full access to doping data stored in Moscow and financial compensation.
Russia’s athletics federation (RUSAF) has been suspended since 2015 over a report commissioned by the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) that found evidence of widespread, state-sponsored doping in the sport.
The IAAF said Russia’s anti-doping agency (RUSADA) still needed to meet two criteria access to data on Russian athletes in a Moscow lab and full financial compensation for investigation and legal costs before the ban is lifted. “If the Russians can and will release the (drugs) samples is up to them. I hope they will deliver the data by the end of this year,” said Rune Andersen, head of the IAAF’S task force on Russia, sitting next to IAAF President Sebastian Coe.
“We have received no assurances it will be delivered to us directly.” To be reinstated, the IAAF has said Russia must acknowledge the findings of the Wada-commissioned Mclaren report that doping in the country was state-sponsored and must also provide access to the data from testing of samples at the RUSADA Moscow laboratory from 2011-2015.
“I am not surprised, but we had hopes because the federation has done lots of work,” Dmitry Shlyakhtin, president of Russia’s athletics federation, told
TASS.